berman. >> nice to have you. i'm zoraida sambolin. up first, the shooting rampage in tucson, arizona, takes a dramatic step this morning. jared lee loughner now facing a lifetime in prison after pleading guilty to a shooting that killed six people and almost killed a former member of congress, gabrielle giffords. under the plea deal loughner will be sentenced to life in prison with no parole but will avoid the death penalty. the u.s. attorney prosecuting the case says loughner's mental state was a big factor in this decision. >> the doctors who have treated and observed mr. loughner since the shooting agree that he suffered from a severe mental illness. that is severe schizophrenia. at the time of the shooting and before the shooting. the fragility of his continued competency to stand trial was taken into account. >> we're live in tu san. we're used to seeing loughner's picture we just showed on the screen. you saw him in the courtroom yesterday. how did he look to you? >> reporter: he looked very different. at least his demeanor was very different. when he first came into the courtroom for the hearing, he did look out at the public galley. he had a bit of an unusual look on his face. he had a bit of a sneer as he was looking out at everyone. but overall his demeanor was very calm. it's important to point out, because of all that medication that you just heard the u.s. attorney talking about, zoraida, he is heavily medicated. that's what his doctors testified to. earlier in previous hearings, he had smiled when the charges were read against him. he had also had loud out bursts and had to be tackled by guards. this time he was able to communicate with the judge, respond to questions. this was a bit of a different person. he also said 19 times, i plead guilty. his mother sat right behind me. she did cry as her son said that each time. and it's important to understand, also, that there were victims in the courtroom. and they also responded every time that he said that as well. here's what one victim told us shortly after the hearing. >> this is the system doing its best. it's not a perfect solution. the perfect solution is one that we can't have. what we want is not available to us. >> reporter: and that is the woman who brought 9-year-old christina taylor green to the congress on your corner event. she is the youngest victim of the six people who died. we also did get a statement from mark kelly. he is the husband of former congressman gabrielle giffords. here's what he says. he says, quote, gabby and i are satisfied with this plea agreement. avoiding a trial will help us and we hope the entire southern arizona community to continue with our recovery and move forward with our lives. >> that was really tough to watch them grapple with that. thank you. >> reporter: much. coming up at 6:30 eastern we'll talk to retired army colonel bill badger. he helped disarm and bring down loughner even after he took a bullet. the gunman who killed six people at a sikh temple in a milwaukee suburb left no obvious clues about his motives. fbi teams have gathered some evidence from the home of wade michael page. oak creek's police chief says this case is unusual because mass murderers typically leave some sort of clue. obvious letters or something else about their plan. page did not. >> you look for the obvious, you know, somebody said he said this. he posted that. he did that. we're not finding anything like that. we may end up with just a lot of facts of what he's involved with, who he may be associated with. but we may never know that motive because he died. that motive died with him. >> also interesting development this morn ing. the l.a. times and other sources are reporting police arrested page's former girlfriend on a gun charge. officers found an unthorsed weapon in the home of misty cook in the home she once shared with the sikh shooter. they reported she shared his interest. a man from ohio is facing arrangement today after police say he was caught packing a pistol at a showing of "the dark knight rises." police in west lake say 37-year-old scott smith had a loaded 9 millimeter handgun and three knives in a bag on saturday. smith's lawyer claims he had no intention of using the weapons. he merely wanted to protect himself in case someone tried to imitate last month's deadly shooting at a theater in colorado. authorities say he did not have a concealed carry permit for that weapon. hundreds of tourists on the run this morning after hurricane ernesto slammed into mexico's yucatan peninsula. the storm came ashore packing winds of, get this, 85 miles an hour. ernesto became a minimal hurricane as it passed along the honduras coast. parts of the country could see up to a foot of rain from it. let's go straight to alexander steele. she is tracking this all in the cnn weather center in atlanta. give us a sense of how serious this is. >> good morning, guys. we no longer have hurricane ernesto. the latest advisory just out moments ago has downgraded it now to a tropical storm. so it is tropical storm ernesto. it was the first landfalling hurricane, though, from the atlantic. but we could see it emerge as a hurricane once again. so here's the latest. now, again, down 70 mile per hour winds. from the center of circulation, about 35 miles out from the center, that's where we have the 70 mile per hour winds. not 80 now. also, it is moving west at 15 miles per hour. and that track and that movement is expected to stay. so here's what happened. here's the yucatan peninsula. it came ashore as a hurricane, minimal hurricane. what we're going to see you, because, of course, any interaction with land does weaken it. a hurricane or tropical storm needs these warm waters to kind of give it its energy. of course, the expectation was for it to weaken. it has. but it will emerge here into the bay of campichi, emerge as a hurricane again and make a second landfall as a hurricane in mexico as well. all this expected to happen the next day or two. in terms of rainfall, especially through the sierra madre mountains, helping to enhance the rain. there's the yucatan. could see more than a foot around the mountainous areas. of course, very strong winds we're seeing now and the rain. but it is a swift mover. what we are going to see, though, is no impact to u.s. soil of any kind. just a mexico scenario. but we will see a second hurricane once again emerge one more time and then continue and then weaken and then finally dissipate. back to you. >> wow, it's very busy. alexander steele, thank you. seven minutes past the hour. a man blows past a nevada check point approaching the hoover dam, sparking a standoff. take a look at this. he couldn't outsmart a s.w.a.t. paem. they raised a barrier trapping the man's vehicle between the barrier and their truck. he had nowhere to go. so he surrendered peacefully. no word this morning on why the man did not stop at the check point. this just in. gas prices on the rise for a tenth day in a row. the average for a gallon of unleaded, $3.65. a lot more than that here if new york, that's for sure. >> yeah. a lot of places around the country. i'll see your romney hood and raise you an obamaloney. the two candidates going tit for tat, coining phrases to cut each other down. it started yesterday when the president attacked mitt romney's tax plan. it didn't take long for the gop candidate to return the behavior. behold. >> it's like robinhood in reverse. it's romneyhood. >> if i were to coin a term it would be obamaloney. >> we'll see if the name calling continues today. the president travels to colorado for a two-day, four-stop visi romney holds a campaign rally in des moines, iowa, scheduled for later this morning. a scoring controversy in women's gymnastics in the olympics involving american ali raisman. a scare in weightlifting. the reigning olympic champ drops a 432 pound weight on his neck. he's okay. the video and all the highlights from london 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[ slap! slap! slap! ] [ music, laughter stop ] [ male announcer ] when your favorite foods fight you, fight back fast with tums smoothies. so fast and smooth, you'll forget you had heartburn. ♪ tum tum tum tum tums [ male announcer ] tums smoothies. our floor director is dancing to the music here. we just love it. >> almost as good rhythm as hillary clinton. that's coming up later. >> i don't know if that's good or bad. all right. welcome back to "early start." it is 13 minutes past the hour. >> i'm hoppy harlow. >> i'm zoraida sambolin. usa women's gymnastics finishing on a high note in london yesterday. ali raisman winning gold in the floor exercise and taking home bronze on the beam. but not without some drama surrounding it. fellow american and all-around champ gabby douglas didn't fair as well. she took a fall on the beam to finish seventh. amanda davies live in our olympic bureau. let's start with ali raisman there. what happened? >> reporter: morning, sunny olympic park today for day 12. yeah. u.s. captain ali raisman, she's largely been overlooked in the last few days because of everything else that's been going on with gabby douglas and jordyn wieber. but she's now matched gabby in terms of gold medals won after the gold on the floor. she also took the bronze on the beam as you said. disappointment, though, for gabby douglas. she'd been saying that all the distraction of everything that had gone before or after that individual all-around title and once again for her second individual event, she really struggled to register. also a little bit of concern about jordyn wieber. she didn't put in a particularly good performance and then was spotted leaving the arena with a supportive boot on her foot. there's some suggestion jordyn wieber might have aggravated an existing stress fracture. really a sad end to the olympic games for her given everything that's happened over the last couple of weeks as well. >> we were talking about ali raisman and some controversy surrounding her. what was that all about? >> yeah. there was controversy about her score. we'd seen before in the all-around that -- to do with tying of scores. it was -- this time it went in her favor with her performance on the beam. she had gone before and missed out narrowly on a bronze medal. here we are today, she did get the medal. she was very pleased about that. the usa gymnastics were very pleased about that as well. >> no kidding. as were her parents. they've been a big part of these olympics as well. a big day on the track for the americans as well including a photo finish in the women's 100-meter hurdles final. >> reporter: yeah. that was last night. it was a bit of a cruel end, really, to the athletes on the track. people watching on tv had seen that australia's sally pearson had taken the 100 meters hurdled gold ahead of america's defending champion, dawn harper. the athletes were left to stand and wait in the rain, watching up at the big screen with their fingers crossed. there was quite a considerable wait. in the end it did show that pearson had taken the gold, much to her delight. dawn harper was very happy with her silver as well. celebrating. no medal -- no love lost for lolo jones after all the buildup and the angst in the cap. she kind of walked off the track without even congratulating the medalists. it's a very big day again today for the u.s. women on the track because of the 200 meters final. of course, it was the jamaicans who dominated in beijing. but this year the u.s. could do a one, two, three themselves. allyson felix is in contention hoping it will be third time lucky for her. sanya richards-ross, she's also looking to add to her 400 title. and then carmelita jeter. she's spurred on by the fact she's had a cheetah named after her this week after her success. >> we're going to be talking to jackie joyner-kersee later about the races coming up. amanda davies live in london for us, thank you very much sfwlnchts pretty scary moment at the games. 2008 weightlifting gold medalist matthias steiner, got to see this video. he drops a 432-pound barbell on his neck. >> oh, gosh! >> this happened yesterday. amazingly, he was able to get up on his own. he, of course, had to withdraw. he was taken to the hospital for x-rays. we don't have any final reading on any impact. but good that he could get up and walk away. that is a good sign. obviously we'll be following it. unbelievable. you were saying they're so strong. those neck muscles from so strong. if anyone can sustain it, someone like him. >> boy, i hope so. that looks horrifying though. terrible. 17 minutes past the hour here. checking the medal count. very important. china has the most medals. 73. and the most gold, 34. we're not far behind. team usa has 70 total medals, 30 gold. great britain and russia each have 48 total medals. today's big events, it's a historic usa versus usa matchup for the women's beach volleyball gold. misty may-treanor, kerri walsh jennings face jen kessy and april ross for the olympic crown. may-treanor and walsh are going for their third gold in what they say will be their final match together. also team usa's men's basketball team takes on australia in the knockout phase of the games. 18 minutes after the hour. let's get you up to date on the morning's top stories. first off, tucson massacre suspect jared lee loughner will be sentenced in november for killing six people and wounding 13 others. he pled guilty yesterday to 19 different counts in court in exchange for a sentence of life in prison with no chance of parole. it was january last year when loughner shot then congresswoman gabrielle giffords and the 18 other victims. giffords is still recovering from a bullet in her brain. [ gunfire ]. >> heavy gunfire, rocket propelled grenades going off. fighting raging in aleppo and damascus and other hot spots in syria as well. this amateur video showing heavy clashing and several explosions. cnn cannot confirm the authenticity of this video. opposition groups say at least 170 people were killed across the country. this was just yesterday. all this as the former prime minister, who bolted syria, arrived in jordan. i think this is a really interesting story. twitter is now agreeing to comply with the new york police department handing over information about a twitter user that officers say threatened to attack a broadway theater. police say the user claimed to be planning an attack on mike tyson's one man show. somewhat similar to the movie theater massacre just a few weeks ago in aurora, colorado. twitter had initially refused to cooperate with police saying that it wasn't a threat. yesterday, though, the nypd issued a subpoena. cia director david petraeus shooting down vice presidential talk this morning. that buzz started after a story surfaced yesterday on the drudge report saying president obama was overheard whispering that mitt romney might pluck the retired four-star general from his administration. a cia spokesman for petraeus says the director feels privileged to serve in his current position and will not seek elected office. j lo suing her former driver for 20 million bucks. accusing him of trying to blackmail her for nearly $3 million. that dispute began back in april when the driver sued lopez and her management for breach of contract when they dropped him from providing security for a video shoot. it is 20 minutes past the hour. we're getting an early read on local news making national headlines. the faa is now imposing stricter rums on airline traffic after the really scary near collision at reagan national airport. that was last week. we told you all about it. this is coming to us via "the washington post." what they're doing here is the faa is temporarily banning aircraft from flying in opposite directions as they arrive and they depart from the airports. this is going to affect all of the airports across the country. last week an air traffic controller accidentally sent two commuter flights into the path of a third jet that was inbound. that is what caused a near collision. the faa says a suspension of two-way traffic is being taken out of an abundance of caution while it considers other measures. they say this is standard practice. absolutely standard practice. i thought one of the interesting things that they found here is the real problem was a lapse in communication. >> of course. >> between air traffic controllers flying in air space that's just a little too close. hopefully they'll look at that. they also said that somebody who's overseeing operations in towers should not be managing administrative tasks. >> i would agree. >> which they were doing. >> that stood out to me in the article as well. i thought about this landing last night. i was coming back from wisconsin. we were landing at laguardia. i was on a commuter jet. i thought about this. glad to hear the abundance of caution. >> absolutely. until they figure it out. >> how about for good? this story really struck me this morning. all the major u.s. pro sports leagues and the ncaa, so the nba, nfl, mlb, nhl, they are all suing -- this is interesting -- over a law that would allow sports betting in the state of new jersey. it's in the new jersey star led